


Star Light, Star Bright

by OhMaven



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Childhood Friends, Gen, Rebel girls, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 10:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11146476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhMaven/pseuds/OhMaven
Summary: Jyn Erso and Leia Organa cross paths as children.





	Star Light, Star Bright

**Author's Note:**

> Happy [Belated] Birthday, Dani! 
> 
> In which Jyn Erso meets Leia Organa for the very first time.

Loud noises weren’t as foreign now, as they had once been. Several years living with Saw Gerrera had exposed Jyn Erso to many things that most girls of eleven or so would never encounter. Even still, the raised voices in the Alliance Commander center were nearly deafening; she wanted to cover her ears with her hands. Instead Jyn pressed closer to the round table, and to Saw, taking advantage of the shadows he cast to go unnoticed by most of the room. She knew, from long nights at Saw’s table, that her guardian disagreed with the entire philosophy behind the fledgling Rebel Alliance. From the sharp, yet respectful, tone the man across the table used when he spoke with Saw, Jyn wasn’t the only one who knew it, either.   
  
“We  _ cannot _ condone these terrorist attacks on occupied worlds, Saw! How does it make us look if we put women, and  _ children _ , in the way of our forces?” The speaker’s hands settled on the edge of the table; lightly, but carefully, as if it was an exercise in control. Jyn thought maybe his control was more delicate, because his temper was more precise. There was nothing delicate about her foster father, and as Jyn turned her head to glance up at him, she saw the stern expression he showed to most of the Galaxy.

“We do whatever it takes, Organa. You cannot win a war with  _ words _ . You have liberated no one with your pretty speeches.” The old soldier paused, and a moment passed between freedom fighter and senator. Organa’s jaw twitched in a tick.   
  
For a moment, Jyn thought he might lose his temper, and she was curious to see it. Instead, his hand moved from the table to rest against the shoulder of a child standing beside  _ him _ . She hadn’t noticed the other girl, perhaps a couple of years younger than herself. The senator’s daughter didn’t appear to be using the shadows to hide; she stood fully next to her father, serious brown eyes fixed on Saw as she frowned.   
  
It was a look Jyn had been giving to Organa. She blinked, and dragged her attention back to the argument.   
  
“We are not fighting a  _ war _ yet, the senate still hopes to avoid-”   
  
“The war has never _ended_ , Senator. We are still fighting the same fight, it’s just that we didn’t know who the  _ real _ enemy was.” Saw leaned in, although his looming presence did not seem to affect Bail Organa the way it did others. “If you cannot see that, then you are building your Alliance for  _ nothing _ .”

 Apparently, it was all Saw Gerrera intended to say. His hand, like Bail Organa’s, fell to his daughter’s shoulder. A little heavier, in fact, and he began to steer Jyn away from the table; as he did, she looked over her shoulder at the other petite figure standing in the shadow of a father.

 

\---

 

Jyn Erso was under no illusions about why she had been brought to this meeting of would-be Rebels. Saw might have been dismissive of the methods of the Alliance, but he had wanted to give them a chance; for Steela, perhaps. He had chosen not to leave his adoptive daughter behind, because he didn’t entirely trust them with Jyn in his absence. She knew all of this, young though she was, had processed it on the ship he had taken to bring them here. Saw left her on her own plenty, but their secret - her identity - was always a little too close to the surface.

She had expected him to want to leave immediately, or for him to sit up the whole night, paranoid as he often was in new places. Instead, Saw had rolled into his bunk and fallen into a heavy slumber. Jyn had listened to his breathing for some time, taking solace in the man’s presence. Their fear of loss was mutual, and that more than anything else knit them together so tightly Jyn thought she might die if they ever parted.

Jyn thought, sometimes, they might die anyway.   
  
She thought of her mother, the sound of her body hitting the grass; of the partisans who left but never came back; their blasters and weapons in the hands of someone else, with a grim expression and slightly deader eyes. Jyn touched the crystal Saw always made her keep hidden, the lump hidden by the cut of her shirt. Suddenly, the room was too small, the soft snores from Saw were too loud, and Jyn needed a way to get  _ out _ .

Although she knew he’d be furious if Saw ever found out, Jyn got to her feet and eased the door open as quietly as she could.

The air outside was cooler, and Jyn kept out of sight in the shadows as she followed the route they’d come back to the hangar, and from there, into the open air of the landing pads. Several of the adults around noticed her, but it was clear Jyn knew how to conduct herself in spaces like this one, and they soon forgot she was there. She found a stack of crates, and climbed atop them so that she could lean back, and look at the stars.   
  
It was easier to breathe, under the vast sky, and in the silence. Or rather, it was until Jyn’s sensitive ears picked up the sound of a shoe scuffing against the side of the crates. She sat up abruptly, hands curling into fists the way Saw had shown her how.   
  
Jyn was not expecting to see the other, younger, girl pull herself onto the top of the crate with a soft groan of effort. Like Jyn, the newcomer was a petite human female with dark hair and pale skin; but there the similarities stopped. This girl was  _ clean _ . Oh, her white dress (who wore  _ white? _ ) was dirt-smudged now. But her fingernails were neat, even, and clean. Her hair was carefully, neatly, coiled into buns on either side of her head. She looked whole in a way Jyn could barely remember feeling - if, indeed, she ever had.   
  
“There you are!” The smaller girl said triumphantly. Her brown eyes fairly sparkled in the dim light of the landing pads. “I thought you had left, after all.”   
  
Did all girls talk to one another like this? Jyn hadn’t been around any her age since Coruscant, and she found herself slightly uncomfortable now. But the other girl was clearly expecting an answer, and so Jyn shrugged one shoulder awkwardly. “It’s a long flight home.”   
  
The other girl nodded, despite the surly answer. “My father said he wouldn’t be surprised if you  _ had _ gone, anyway. I don’t think he meant to make your,” there was a slight, knowing, pause before the girl went on, “father so angry.”   
  
“It doesn’t take much,” Jyn admitted. Although she didn’t confirm that Saw was her father, she didn’t deny it either. Her companion seemed able to understand, and accept as much. It struck Jyn that perhaps this child spent most of her time around adults, too.   
  
“I’m Leia,” the daughter of Bail Organa announced suddenly. “Just because  _ they _ don’t get along, doesn’t mean  _ we _ can’t be friends.”   
  
This didn’t seem to be how partisanship worked, but Jyn supposed it would be nice to see a friendly, familiar, face on her next visit with Saw. No matter how much her adoptive father seemed to hate their methods, Jyn was confident there would  _ be _ a next time. Saw was too practical to turn up his nose at the resources Bail Organa and his friends could obviously muster.   
  
“Jyn,” she answered, relieved that since Leia had offered no surname, she could do the same. Her attention moved away from the girl somewhat, as Jyn glanced back at the hangar, surprised no one had followed the senator’s daughter. “Should…”   
  
Surprisingly, Leia laughed. “I’m never allowed out here. I probably only have another few minutes before someone comes looking for me.” She held out her hand, still smiling. “It was nice to meet you, Jyn.”   
  
“Nice to meet you, too.” Jyn shook the other girl’s hand; maybe they were both too much like small adults - as Saw’s partisans occasionally teased her for being - but maybe it was why being friends with Leia didn’t seem as daunting a prospect as it had been in the beginning.   
  
The senator’s daughter grinned once more, and then shimmied off the top of the container, and Jyn watched her sprint back inside. The top of the container felt darker in Leia’s absence, but she felt a little lighter for the exchange. Jyn’s fingers found the kyber crystal once more, pressing it to her chest through the shirt. She didn’t know the Force, but it would feel like her instinct, Lyra had once said.   
  
Maybe trusting the Force, her mother’s last instruction, was as easy as following the instinct that Leia was an important friend to have.   
  
Jyn passed the remainder of the night atop the crate, carefully thinking of nothing at all.


End file.
